Recently, surgical staplers have become the more popular mode of use for closing medical wounds. Some of the surgical staplers which have been developed are devices which cut tissue between rows of staples. The tissue is cut while the staples are being driven through the tissue to seal off the wound. This is especially true in gastrointestinal devices.
One of the drawbacks of the presently used surgical stapling and cutting devices is the difficulty of initiating the cutting procedure. That is, generally, the stapler will be comprised of a pair of jaws between which is placed the tissue to be cut and stapled. The jaws are clamped around the tissue, and then the cutting and stapling sequence is initiated. Usually, in order to begin to cut, the user will need to provide extra force at the knife blade. In this regard, the knife blade has encounters difficulty in initially separating the tissue. Once cutting has been initiated, it becomes much easier to cut the remaining tissue. Therefore, only at the moment of beginning cutting is additional force necessary.